coastal plain that should correspond in its representative char- 

 acter to the Piedmont collection of minerals. This collection 

 has now been fairly begun. Several years ago I was able to 

 secure a very fine illustrative series of tertiary fossils of Mary- 

 land from the exhaustive collections of the Maryland Academy 

 of Sciences, through the courtesy and kindness of its president, 

 Dr. Philip R. Uhler. This collection had been unpacked, classi- 

 fied and arranged during the past two months. In addition to 

 these there is a good representation of "S^irginia tertiary fossils, 

 principally my own contribution, and a small but characteristic 

 series from North Carolina obtained from duplicates at David- 

 son College. To these should be added the carefully selected 

 series of eocene fossils from Alabama and Mississippi given by 

 Dr. L. T. Chamberlain from his extensive collections in the Phil- 

 adelphia Academy of Sciences. These, with the old material 

 from this state belonging to the Museum, and the complete col- 

 lections deposited by Mr. Earle Sloan, form already a very val- 

 uable series showing the tertiary paleontology^ of the South At- 

 lantic and Gulf states. A large amount of additional material 

 in this department partly American, partly from Europe, and 

 partly from Syria is still packed awaiting space for display. 



Archaeological Specimens 



The archaeological collection w^hich I have given to the Museum 

 comprises 111 specimens of considerable interest. Besides the 

 ordinarj^ objects, such as stone implements of different kinds from 

 various parts of the countr}-. it contains some things that are de- 

 serving of special mention. Among these is a series of specimens 

 from the locality on Rock Creek near the city of Washington, 

 described by Prof. J. A. Holmes as an Indian workshop. These 

 illustrate every stage in the process of manufacture of stone im- 

 plements, from pebbles just broken by one or two strokes to well 

 developed arrow and spear heads. Another interesting group 

 of specimens was obtained at Trenton, N. J., from and with Dr. 

 C. C. Abbott, whose researches and discoveries as to paleoli- 

 thic remains in the post-glacial gravels of the Delaware River 

 attracted great interest at the time of their publication. Another 

 set of specimens, received from the late eminent Prof. Charles 

 Frederick Hartt, the first director of the geological survey of 

 Brazil, illustrates some facts brought out by his early explora- 

 tions about 1870, along the Rio Tapajos. These consist of the 

 shells of the freshwater mussels of the two genera (Hyria and 

 Castalia) characteristic of the Amazon basin and corresponding to 



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